Latest news with #LowerDiabaig
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Mars exploration: Why ESA are testing tech in the Highlands
Scientists hunting for life on Mars are focussing their attention on somewhere a bit unexpected. They have been testing high-tech equipment - not in a special simulator or mock up of the red planet - but in the remote town of Lower Diabaig in the Scottish Highlands. And why? Because rocks on the banks of Loch Torridon are similar to those on the surface of Mars and perfect for testing their tech. And that tech includes parts from a special rover just like one they're aiming to drive on Mars itself."Before we send any technology to Mars, we want to put it through its paces, and understand how well it works and how [best] to use the data we get from it", said Dr Claire Cousins, who is part of the testing team. Dr Claire Cousins is from the University of St Andrews and is working with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the ExoMars Mission. According to Dr Cousins, the team of international scientists are setting themselves a "big goal", trying to understand the ancient environment from about four billion years ago. The trials have included cameras of the type to be used as the rover's "eyes", and kit that can detect ancient biology preserved in the Cousins explains there are only a few places on Earth that are suitable for this kind of testing, and these billion-year-old mudstone are perfect. "They haven't been cooked and squeezed and crushed under mountain belts."They have been beautifully preserved - a slice of time," she said. "We don't know yet if there was ever life on Mars, but these are the kinds of rocks that are going to preserve it," Claire added. What is the Mars mission all about and when will it take place? The ExoMars rover was due to land on Mars back in 2021 but complications meant it's launch has had to be delayed until 2028. If all goes to plan, the rover will land on Mars in 2030. It is the first time scientists in Britain have built a rover. It will drill into the surface of Mars in order to study the composition of the planet, and investigate whether there was once life there.
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Mars rover technology tested out on West Highland rocks
Technology which will be used in the search for evidence of life on Mars has been tested in the Scottish European Space Agency (ESA) plans to send a robotic rover to the Red Planet to study its geology - and look for fossils and minerals.A University of St Andrews team has been testing equipment in Lower Diabaig, in Torridon, where there are rocks that are billions of years old and similar to those found on trials have included of cameras of the type to be used as the rover's "eyes", and kit that can detect ancient biology preserved in the rock. The ExoMars programme comprises two first, called Trace Gas Orbiter, was launched in 2016 while the second has a target launch of 2028, and aims to land the rover on the robot is named after London-born scientist Rosalind Franklin, who died in said the missions would tackle the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. Dr Claire Cousins of the University of St Andrews said mission technology needed rigorous testing on Earth to make sure it would work on the red said the rare geology around Lower Diabaig was "ideal" as a told BBC Scotland's Landward programme: "The rocks haven't metamorphosed right, they haven't been cooked and squeezed and crushed under mountain belts."They have been beautifully preserved - a slice of time."The rocks include billion-year-old mudstone and other rocks which are stacked one on top of the other in Cousins said: "These are perfect for showing us there was once liquid water - a habitable environment for life."Also, these rocks are very good at capturing evidence of that ancient past biology. It's sandwiched between the rocks."She added: "We don't know yet if there was ever life on Mars, but these are the kinds of rocks that are going to preserve it." Seven years ago a Nasa Mars rover, Curiosity, explored a part of the planet named after geological areas and features have been named by Nasa after places on of the names were taken from Scotland and, as well as Torridon, there is a Siccar Point, Muck, Wick, Sandwick and Holyrood on chose the name Torridon due to the Torridonian Supergroup, a geological formation in the north-west Highlands that contains some of the oldest evidence of life of any rocks in the 2012, Glenelg held a celebration in honour of a location on Mars being named after the small Highland community.
